Week #50 - 洛杉矶的消息 (News from Los Angelos)

 

This week is the last week of the transfer. Sorry I didn’t get an email last week, it is kind of a tragic story. Last week I wrote a huge email recapping the week and right before I submitted it my phone refreshed and deleted the whole thing. I’ll try to recap what happened in this email. Last week our friend XiuFen Zhou got baptized and this week she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. She is getting more involved in the ward and I can see her continue to make changes in her life. The funny thing is that we met XiuFen Zhou through her sister, who we started teaching a couple months ago. Her sister invited her to church and from then on we taught them together. As we were getting them prepared for baptism we realized that FangFang (XiuFens sister), actually lives in Anaheim which is outside of our mission, so we had to refer her to the missionaries in that mission. They ended up getting baptized on the same day! 

A fun story from this week is that our English class made it into the LA Times newspaper. They were doing a story about Chinese immigrants coming to America and the hardships they go through. Because of a combination of the current immigration policies in America and the condition of living in China, a lot of people are immigrating from China to America. Most of the time they move to Mexico and then cross the border to America. The sad thing is that it is easier to immigrate illegally than legally, so it is a little chaotic. The LA Times article mentions that our church provides free English for the immigrants. 

Recently I have been trying to read the Book of Mormon in Chinese. It takes a while to get through a chapter, so I have been trying to do a chapter a day. Reading in Chinese has not only helped my understanding of the language but has also helped me understand the scriptures better.

Scripture of the Week:

Alma 7: 21

And he doth not dwell in ^aunholy temples; neither can filthiness or anything which is unclean be received into the kingdom of God; therefore I say unto you the time shall come, yea, and it shall be at the last day, that he who is ^bfilthy shall remain in his filthiness.

Not only does keeping the commandments help us be safe and happy. It also helps us to always have the spirit with us. I think it is sometimes intimidating for people when they realize no unclean thing can dwell with God. Jesus Christ is always reaching out to us and encouraging us to repent. He ALWAYS wants to help us. We can all be perfectly clean. What he requires of us is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The means we humble ourselves and turn to him with full intent of change. We have to look forward and not backward. The Savior said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). I know as we look forward and make changes in our lives to become better, the Savior will help us every step of the way. The greatest peace we can feel comes from using his Atonement. I would encourage all of you to study more about the Savior’s Atonement and how you can implement it every day in your life.

That is all for this week,

再见，

李长老